Friday, January 2, 2015

Starting The New Year At The Edge of the Empire

A few years ago I bought the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game, but I've never tried it. I think the fact it was an entirely new system intimidated me too much. I've played all of the other Star Wars games: D6, d20, d20 Revised, and Saga Edition, but this one just felt too different. Recently a member of my gaming group has expressed interest in Edge of the Empire so I decided to get over my fear and give it a go. I spent New Year's Eve with my friend Josh and I decided it was time to test drive Fantasy Flight's Star Wars games.

The experience was pretty chaotic. I gm'd and rolled for two of the party members and Josh ran the character he wanted and rolled for the other party member. The system is different from any I've played. While I was unsure at times, I find it was easy to just roll with it and go. If you want a concrete system with defined numbers and such, this isn't the system for you. If you want a Star Wars tabletop rpg that lets you come up with a narrative as you go based on some dice rolls, then this game is for you. Want to give the game a spin? Download the 2013 Free RPG Day adventure, Shadows of a Black Sun, on the game's support page.Unfortunately you will need to purchase a set of Star Wars dice, grab some dice from one of the beginner's boxes, or pay 5 bucks for the Star Wars dice app.

41-Vex, Lowhrick, Oskara, and Pash.

I definitely want to pick up one of the core books. Right now Edge of the Empire (fringer, smugglers, and other scum) and Age of Rebellion (Rebel cells) are out. Much like Fantasy Flight's Warhammer 40K games, the core mechanics for each are the same. While I would like to have both, I think I'll go with Edge of the Empire first. It seems to have the most broad appeal. Plus there's nothing stopping me from letting my party of smugglers, hired guns, and bounty hunters be Rebels fighting the Empire. I'm not sure how many pages are devoted to the Force in Age of Rebellion, but Edge of the Empire only has 8-10. I like this because in my experience with Star Wars games, jedi overshadow non-jedi nearly every time. The Force will be fully detailed in the final (as of now) Fantasy Flight Star Wars game, Force and Destiny (currently in beta).